I read both of Yglesias' articles. You wrote "the simple solution is to build more housing", and point to Houston and Dallas as examples where there is no hous

I read both of Yglesias' articles. You wrote "the simple solution is to build more housing", and point to Houston and Dallas as examples where there is no housing problem. Yglesias proposes a more restricted solution, high-density zoning. This lets people build more housing in the same area, rather than going outwards as Houston and Dallas do. gamblor956 mentioned a problem which is an issue in London and a few other places; foreign investment in (nearly unused) second homes has secondary negative effects. For example, with fewer actual residents there are fewer restaurants, stores, and other services for those people who live there, and who moved there because there were services. The NYT at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/world/europe/a-slice-of-london-so-exclusive-even-the-owners-are-visitors.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/world/europe/a-slice-of-lo... gives a few real-world examples. It's made worse in London by the low tax rate for secondary homes, which is why Vancouver specifically wants higher tax rates for those homes. Along the lines of Yglesias' description in Slate, suppose foreigners purchased American-made luxury cars from union factories in Detroit and parked them all in your neighborhood. As Yglesias says, "Great news, right?" It builds a lot of upstream production in the US, and "it should be providing lots of employment for working class men." Except that now you don't have anywhere to park your own car, or for visitors to park, or even for the delivery truck to park. How much livability would you give up for the benefit of the rest of the country? How much livability should Vancouver residents give up? Foreign ownership of unused housing decreases density. I think it's possible to compensate by building even more density, with the expectation that 1/3rd of it won't be used. (Hopefully the market will be stable enough.) But my point is that it isn't as simple as looking towards Houston and Dallas.